NC moves to fine Duke over coal ash pollution

By MICHAEL BIESECKERAssociated Press

Published: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 at 4:22 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 at 4:22 p.m.

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina environmental officials moved Tuesday to fine Duke Energy over pollution that has been seeping into the groundwater for years from a pair of coal ash dumps at a retired power plant outside Wilmington.

The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued a notice of violation to Duke over the ongoing contamination at the L.V. Sutton Electric Plant in New Hanover County. The site includes a pair of unlined ash dumps estimated to hold 2.6 million tons of ash.

The state says monitoring wells near Duke's dumps at Sutton showed readings exceeding state groundwater standards for boron, thallium, selenium, iron, manganese and other chemicals. Thallium is highly toxic.

The state environmental agency did not immediately respond to requests for details about the levels of chemicals detected or the dates the samples were collected.

The notice of violation is the first regulatory step toward fining the utility for violating of the state's groundwater contamination laws.

The state filed a series of lawsuits against Duke in state court last year after a coalition of environmental groups gave notice they intended to take the company to federal court for violating the Clean Water Act. In its court filings, state officials said all 33 of Duke's coal ash dumps statewide are contaminating groundwater.

Duke is fighting the state in court and there are no dates yet scheduled for when the cases might go to trial.

As the case drags on, N.C. Division of Water Resources director Tom Reeder said his agency would use its authority under state law to start fining Duke up to $25,000 a day.

"We said in court last year that the groundwater around the Sutton Plant was contaminated by Duke's coal ash ponds," said Reeder, who wrote and sent the notice Tuesday. "But as the legal process for stopping the violations drags on, we will take what action we can using our existing authority to hold the utility financially accountable for damaging the public resource."

Duke has 15 days to formally respond to the violation notice from the state.

The company did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests from the Associated Press seeking comment.

Duke and state regulators have been under intense scrutiny after a massive Feb. 2 spill from one of the company's ash dumps in Eden coated 70 miles of the Dan River in gray sludge.

State water quality officials had known for years about the contamination at Sutton's unlined ash pits, but took no enforcement action until August 2013 — after the citizens groups tried to sue Duke. The company has denied its coal ash stored at Sutton and 13 other coal-fired power plants is a threat, but Duke agreed in October to pay at least $1.5 million to help cover the cost of running new water lines to a nearby residential neighborhood where residents relied on well water.

In September 2010, a portion of the earthen dike at one of Sutton's coal-ash dumps collapsed after a heavy rain, spilling waste down an embankment. A study by Wake Forest biology professor A. Dennis Lemly found that selenium from coal ash was triggering mutations and deaths in fish living in nearby Sutton Lake.

Sutton is one of four Duke plants designated as "high risk" in a coal ash cleanup bill passed earlier this month by state lawmakers. The bill requires Duke to dig up and remove all of the ash stored at Sutton and remove it to lined landfills by 2019. Gov. Pat McCrory has not signed the bill into law.